2. P90Xtras

Yes, I’m still here! P90X Classic Phase 1 is coming to a close—I began Week 4 this morning (Recovery and Ab Focus) with Yoga X, my biggest challenge so far—getting my still relatively stiff body into the postures, doing the movements, and keeping my balance. Same thing with Ab Ripper X. I look forward to the days ahead when I will no longer be writing notes like “less reps” or “almost” or “legs @ 45-degree angle” (when it’s supposed to be 90 degrees) on my worksheets.

Thanks, Saki, Tony, and Uma for your thoughtful and encouraging comments—I’ve been working consistently to “do my best and forget the rest” and the rewards are starting to show up. Much of my "spare tire" is gone. My old six-pack from many years ago is beginning to reappear around the edges. Definition is coming back to my chest, shoulders, arms, and legs.

And I'm walking around feeling brighter—about almost everything. Because I'm rebuilding my body? Sure. But also because doing this program is reconnecting me with the fact that I’m still in here.

You know. That ideal Self inside every one of us that we're tempted to sell out on, especially later in life—that Vision you and I long to be living out here in the world that never really goes away, no matter how much mediocrity we may have learned to put up with over the years. That me I’m getting back in touch with is active, powerful, beautiful.  And passionate!

I mean passionate about standing for something and moving with it! Passionate about having the kind of impact that ignites the best in everyone it touches—brimming with the fire of compassion and being totally devoted to what I’m doing with the kind of feeling Bob Dylan must have felt 46 years ago when he was writing the closing lines of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”:

      And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
     And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
     And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
     And I'll know my song WELL before I start singin'

So right now I find myself tuning this instrument I call my body and learning to sing my song all over again.

Is it possible to be totally free in body, mind, and soul?
Maybe this is one way to start finding out. . . .